Archaeology Under Fire- Secret Treasure

Summary

It’s tough enough being a daring explorer, tougher being a determined archaeologist, but tougher still when you keep ducking bandits' unrelenting fury! Not to mention the unexpected spears of deceit and trickery! Determination ‘should’ overcome obstacles, right?No slack for women, and strong they have to be to survive it. Then, too, master all the treachery. When gold is in the mix, the trust is out of the window... or tunnel... whatever... Using the latest discovery equipment, Lorissa and Cole uncover a spectacular find, deep in the Guatemala jungle. But then, everyone else wants to steal it... reaching out from home, and even more by the locals Another thrilling ride of discovery and romance from #TheStoryteller, G. Weldon Tucker

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Archaeology Under Fire- Secret Treasure - G. Weldon Tucker

Wings

Chapter 1

Two eager, young faces watched Jack Hollander across his expansive desk. He was a big man in many ways. Size, money and power. And like most politicos, he was not a nice guy. Nice guys do not rise to the upper echelon. Keep that in mind for your favorite congressman, senator and so on… all the way to the top. ‘Nuff said.

Sitting before him were his most trusted employees. Products of a pair of failed university systems that went broke in limited, local field trips and nothing to show for it, they knew the mechanics of the process, but had been working the wrong areas, mostly. Both had been into Latin America in field trips as students, but not in leadership roles. So, some degree of knowledge, some degree of experience. Just enough innocence for his needs, he knew.

Since most of his work was clandestine, i.e., for his own benefit, the grab to land Dr. Lorissa Alexander and Dr. Cole Davenport had been a distinct success. Already, they had helped discover new fields for investigation in northern New Mexico and Colorado, though neither had set foot in those places. It was all remote, for those areas. Just good minds and an ability to read topographical surveys with a good eye.

Sure, a little teamwork gave them credibility, and he thought he should be able to ‘direct’ them easily.

He liked looking at the diminutive, but curvy Lorissa. Looking, because the near giant, Cole, looked ready to pounce on him and beat him to death if he even so much as patted her bottom.

But, such is the life of the young, and Jack Hollander was not young. Just rich. Sometimes, for a short-term fling, that was enough. Money can buy certain kinds of love, but nothing too clingy. Besides, he knew that pretty Lorissa was far too level headed for that.

The two of them had enough brain power to burn him to a crisp, too, so he had to mask his intentions behind altruistic flim-flam, but carefully.

They sat in plush chairs, as he leaned back in his oversized, luxury executive chair. He smoked horrid cigars like a chimney, a privilege of the rich, as they can afford to bend the rules. Or break them, as need be.

The two Ph.Ds did not smoke and it showed. Prissy kids, he thought. But keys to his next sizeable fortune. He did blow his smoke toward the overhead exhaust system that they insisted he install in his office.

Well, Dr. Alexander was not a kid. They were second year assets for ADDA, a government entity that sought to find, capture and conceal as much as they could. Formally, it was named the Archeological Discovery and Development Agency. Lots of money went into this enterprise. Lots of Jack’s money, the occasional grant from his cronies, but the returns mostly went to private sources. Jack’s.

Jack had found the perfect tool. The University of Colorado first identified the potential for a particular kind of exploration tool, but then could not provide the proof. ADDA provided the funding and the development of the more powerful LIDAR equipment, and hence, the tedious process of discovery. Finally, now, Jack owned it.

Frankly, in Lorissa’s opinion, this was nothing like finding it for real, on the ground, in the pits. She’d had a ton of remote work staring at a computer screen and studying topography. But archaeologists do not want to hide in the background.

So, with LIDAR, they were physically making a map that would certainly allow faster, more important discovery. At least, it should put them on the ground in exactly the right place.

But, it was also hush-hush. There was a good chance, both Cole and Lorissa knew while sitting in the boss’ office, that there was a bank account in mind. His.

But, as employees, they had little say in such things. They were paid well, better than the University system by far, and both were frugal, typical scientists more interested in discovery than flash. Their own bank accounts reflected it.

Lorissa Alexander , Ph.D, 29, was of the University of Arizona. Their focus was the southwestern United States, and, as she discovered, there was not a lot of money available to scour a part of the country already well covered. Her training and few field trips resulted in nothing successful for Arizona to brag about.

But she had a little experience in other areas, notably northern Mexico, so her international creds were in place. Arizona had been about to close down its field adventures when ADDA showed up in her office.

The front man for ADDA was polished, in well appointed business suit and looked like the lead to a successful enterprise. He was well spoken, his arguments for her to join up were compelling, and frankly, it would be much easier, she knew, to simply step out of one failing institution, at her pitiful salary, and take the plum job with the super salary. No thought required. She signed on, that very day.

Cole Davenport, Ph.D, 38, running late because of an eight year stint with the Army, came from the University of Virginia, whose focus was the history around the coal mines, culture, anthropology and earlier.

However, like Lorissa, he’d attended the closest school to home and hearth, but his interests led south. He’d tagged along on three different field trips, part in college, part with the University of Georgia in Central Guatemala. Again, the international creds were there, but he needed a better sponsor. He, too, had been recruited by ADDA. He could not say no. They simply paid too well and promised job security, too. It was, he figured, a good five steps up from the typical university positions. He, too, signed on the first visit.

Both had been team leads on field trips, but none of those to the Latin Countries area. Of the two, Cole had been on the ground in a smaller role in Guatemala. He at least had been there.

However, to Jack and ADDA, they were a good find. The real money came in the trips and potential digs, themselves, for their contract with ADDA promised a percentage of the find, like that of the university systems, nationwide, but at twice the rate. Again, a good snare.

Jack stubbed out his stinking cigar and then slid a thick book across the empty desk. The furniture was so unused, and so polished, the book went right off the edge into Cole’s lap, but he caught it before it could do any damage.

That’s the specs and the operations manual. The machine is operable, and I think it will work well for our needs. You two will prove to me that it works properly and the land has either potential or promise. You do not need to explore on the ground, just yet. Perfectly safe in the air. It is a look down, light emitting radar, the technicalities do not matter. Other than you need to be able to fix it on the fly, if it breaks down. So far, it has shown no propensity to fail. But I expect results.

Cole thumbed through the six hundred pages, a big book, eight by eleven, and heavy. All the specs, the instructions and such were there. He knew that soon, he could run this thing in his sleep, and he said so.

If you want to be in on the groundside, up close and personal, Davenport, you will have to see the results from the inside of the plane. I have one ready to take off in one week, at dawn, at National. Gate 2. They are mounting the LIDAR this week. Get yourself two free interns, and then go check it out.

Free interns means from school. Masters level? Lorissa asked.

Yes, post Masters graduate only. Gotta follow the rules. Get me their names and such. Meanwhile, here are your own passports and such you need to operate outside of the US. He slid a large manila envelope over that slick desk to Lorissa, seemingly disappointed when she managed to catch it before it smacked her in the chest.

Asshole, she thought, but kept it internal. He did handle the paychecks, a simple matter of logic. Thankfully, they rarely had to interact with the old dinosaur.

Chapter 2

After leaving that stinking office and the rather disgusting, pompous billionaire behind, carrying their assignments under an elbow, they practically danced and skipped like children, though both were well past that stage.

Can you believe it? Finally! A Central American field trip of our very own! My God, I have waited forever, Lorissa crowed.

Me, too. Still, all of this one will be in the air, other than refueling and bivouac at night. But that is dangerous land. It is probably a good thing we are starting in a plane. Let’s get our heads together over lunch and paw through this book. I want to see how it works.

Lorissa understood Cole, very well. He was careful about it, because of all the new restrictions about harassment, but he was definitely in pursuit.

Not now, she reminded herself. Career is far more important. Besides, he already had a wife, once. Once burned and all that.

You get started, Cole. I have to meet one of my last interns for lunch downtown. I think I can recruit her and her boyfriend, free. They both have their masters in archaeology. I will look up LIDAR on line.

He frowned, but he did not push. He was trying hard to be patient. His previous wife was a four year run, most of which he spent in Iraq and Afghanistan. Typical failed mis-match. She did not want to wait for the bad news that her husband was KIA. In fact, she waited for nothing else.

In any case, two years into their employment with ADDA, they finally found they were on to something. It was a discovery that would help them put boots on the ground, and both wanted to be heading up any Central American dig. Following along with others had taught them the ropes, but it did not give them the responsibility. A team lead is not an expedition lead. In the latter was where the rewards lay.

Online, Lorissa learned a great deal about the LIDAR technology, most of it quite surprising:

---

LIDAR originated in the early 1960s, shortly after the invention of the laser, and combined laser-focused imaging with the ability to calculate distances by measuring the time for a signal to return using appropriate sensors and data acquisition electronics.

Considering the extreme speed of light, the receiver, in order to divide the frequencies to determine which flash was which, and how long out and back, was a very complex, very carefully designed unit. The sender was merely a focused laser beam, intermittent by thousandths of a second. The stuff of science fiction for the system to work. And it did work.

Its first applications came in meteorology, where the National Center for Atmospheric Research used it to measure clouds. This function continues today, as the Hurricane Patrol flies out to check the intensity and movement of storms. LIDAR is installed on these planes.

The general public became aware of the accuracy and usefulness of LIDAR systems in 1971 during the Apollo 15 mission, when astronauts used a laser altimeter to map the surface of the moon.

Although now most sources treat the word LIDAR as an acronym, the term originally is of "light and radar".

Light Detection And Ranging, or for, Laser Imaging, Detection And Ranging, both tie for guesstimates of what the capitalized LIDAR might mean.

But, of course, that is the government for you, where things are run by committees.

---

She did not know it, but she was already ahead of Cole, still laboriously working through the minutiae in the book. But, that was his nature, an engineer, probably, at heart. She was overview, he was details.

To Lorissa, with two interns eventually in tow, set up details would not matter.

What did matter was the discovery of so much Mayan history and archaeology beneath them. She was as certain as Cole that the Mayan culture had barely been revealed. LIDAR should be the key to opening their history and culture to the world.

-----

Later that week, bringing Theresa ‘Terry’ Wolden and John Holder with them, they toured the aircraft. All had flown in similar planes, so this was not a frightening thing. Before, it was topography and eyeballing the ground, snapping hundreds of photographs. Now, it was technology.

But they were curious how this LIDAR would be mounted and workable in the small, twelve seat plane. All seats except their four were removed. The pilot and co-pilot had their own up front.

It was a 1982 Harbin Y-12 Twin Engine Turboprop Utility Aircraft, a real workhorse, and capable of slow-motion flying, if needed. It would depend on how quickly the LIDAR could process information.

That depended on power. So, along both walls, at the floor, but behind cabinet doors, were a series of twelve-volt batteries. Deep cycle, they could charge full and run all day. The plane’s power would keep them going, but during high intensity sweeps, there would be a slight overage of need for power and the batteries prevented frying the airplane’s electronics.

Nighttime at the airport, while the team was laid out on the tarmac in sleeping bags, the airport’s power system would top them off.

These batteries were dedicated to the power-hungry LIDAR unit, mounted in a cabinet in the center of the plane, bolted down on the floor. Under it, below the skin, a half bubble in plexiglass extruded with an emitter and collector, the working parts of the LIDAR protected from the elements. That bubble was about the size of two fists, and the electronics inside of it were barely one fist. Cole’s, not Lorisssa’s…

The top of the inside table was a horizontal screen almost three feet on a side. The height was such that both Cole and Lorissa had to stand up to run the machine.

That might be a bitch, Cole grumbled. Five days?

Well, you are older and all that, old man! she quipped.

And can outrun, outclimb and outswim you any day. You are soft.

Women are supposed… well, never mind. She did not need to allow him even a toe in that door although her mind, and maybe her own hormones kept stepping up too close.

Well, to be fair, he was a man’s man, tough, tender, good looking, capable… and in truth, she could not find fault, her fallback position to avoid entanglements.

But she could... hopefully… keep him at arms’ length until she was ready.

Chapter 3

The two interns, both with credits for South American trips in Ecuador this past season, already had their passports and shots, and were ready to go. This garnered points with Jack for her fine recruiting skills. Like she cared… she was too busy.

Lorissa and Cole soon found themselves packed for a week-long adventure. However, when they showed up at the airport, at dawn, there were three black government SUVs parked around their plane, blocking it in.

Trouble, Cole said, unnecessarily, as he drove out toward the plane to find out what was going on.

Lorissa, in the front passenger seat with the two interns in back, asked, What the hell are they looking for? They are inside the plane!

There were four men in dark suits outside the aircraft, and two others visible inside the door. Maybe others inside but out of sight.

Cole parked the SUV to one side, and the four popped out to discover the problem.

A swarthy, big, bulky man stopped their approach, holding his FBI credentials out, briefly. You have to wait here. We have a warrant to search the plane…

Let me read your credentials, Agent, Cole said, holding out his hand.

The man glared at Cole, almost nose to nose, as both were solid, tall, hard men, then he blinked first. He pulled out his badge case.

While Cole studied that, Lorissa said, I am Dr. Lorissa Alexander. I am heading up this field trip with Dr. Davenport. Let me see that warrant.

The big man snapped his fingers and a smaller, well-constructed young man hurried over.

The warrant, Bennett.

Apparently, this big guy was the Agent in Charge. Or AIC. The younger man fished out a trifold two-page document and handed it to the boss.

He, in turn, handed it to Lorissa. He said nothing.

The document seemed official. It had the right letterhead, the seal of the US Government and such, and specifically ordered a search for drugs and contraband aboard the plane. No, something was off. Was it the right plane?

Agent, you are in the wrong plane. The tail number is not this one. You are supposed to be at that one over there, by the hangar. See the damned number?

Saying nothing at all, he glared at Lorissa for a moment, as if it were her fault, then turned to study the number on the tail of the ADDA plane.

Without saying a word, he turned and looked out a few hundred yards at the other Harbin Y-12 Twin Engine Turboprop, but with a much newer number. Shit. Wrap it up, boys. Wrong aircraft.

He took his ID from Cole, the warrant from Lorissa, and they returned to their vehicles without so much as an apology. Government stiffs, she thought, angrily, but kept it internal.

After they drove off to assault the other plane, they were free to comment. It better damn well be in perfect order inside my plane, Lorissa growled.

Yeah. Cole was already hurrying up the drop-down stairs.

As it was, though the cabinets and service doors were open, nothing appeared to have been removed or disconnected in any way.

You studied his ID for a long time. Why? Lorissa asked.

It would not be the first time a pretend agency put something on the plane that did not belong. For us to carry or to sabotage the program.

Wouldn’t we be going the wrong way for drugs?

Does not have to be drugs. Could be money, anything, Cole replied. Hell, it could be bugs or sniffers. There are few friends in the world of treasure.

The interns were wide eyed, watching, listening, learning. But then, that is what interns do. They gather knowledge and experience on the cheap.

As it was, rather than a dawn departure, all of the get ready stuff was still ahead of them.

Their pilot, Steve Growlin, had to get the preflight checklist done by himself, for the co-pilot begged off with the flu. Now, Steve had to get their luggage packed for weight distribution, and all equipment examined and tested. It went well, albeit slowly. They were in the air by noon.

Thank you, incompetency. Being big and under the Federal Umbrella does not equate to intelligence, apparently, at least in Lorissa’s somewhat angry appraisal.

Yes, she had a temper to go with her determination and strong will, but she spent a great deal of time trying to get the better of it. At least I did not deck him, she thought.

The flight from DC to El Paso, TX took eight hours in the slow-moving plane, counting a layover for fuel. The capability of slow was perfect for exploration, but dismal for long distance. So, one day was shot, as they were forced to spend the night at a hotel in El Paso.

Of course, we could all share a suite, save money, Lorissa, Cole offered.